Scotland Yard detectives have made finding the mystery man a top priority after ruling out a previous prime suspect seen carrying a child earlier the same evening.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, who is leading the new probe, told a BBC Crimewatch programme last night that the “breakthrough discovery” means the “emphasis has shifted” and the “timeline” has moved.

He said: “It takes us through to a position at 10pm when we see another man who is walking towards the ocean, close by to the apartment, with a young child in his arms.

“This child is described as being about three to four years of age with blonde hair, possibly wearing pyjamas, and the man is a white man with dark hair.

“If this is you, and you are nothing to do with Madeleine’s disappearance, then we really need to speak to you.

“It’s so important for us to eliminate innocent sightings. But equally if anybody is looking at those e-fits and recognises the person, for whatever reason, then please have the courage to call in and tell us.”

The sighting has taken on new significance after a man seen carrying a child by the McCanns’ friend Jane Tanner close to their apartment in Praia da Luz at 9.20 was found to be an innocent British holidaymaker who police have tracked down.

Mr Redwood said: “We are almost certain now that this sighting is not the abductor. From 9.15 we are allowed to let the clock move forward.”

It was at 9.15pm when Madeleine was last seen, when her father Gerry, 44, saw her sleeping soundly in bed.

The development means that Kate, also 44, might have interrupted Madeleine’s kidnapper when she went to check on her while dining with Gerry and friends at a tapas restaurant 50 meters from their apartment in the Ocean Club on May 3, 2007.

Describing the moment she realised Madeleine had vanished Kate told Crimewatch presenter Kirsty Young said she went to check on her half and hour after friend Matt Oldfield had done so.

She said: “So at 10 o’clock I got up to do the next check so I headed back to that apartment the usual route and I just stopped and listened in the living room for a bit.

“It was all quiet but it just caught my eye that the children’s door was quite far open and at that point I thought it must have been when Matt checked and he left it open. As I was just drawing it over it was like it had been caught by a draft and it just slammed shut.

“I was looking at Madeleine’s bed and I couldn’t make her out and then I realised actually she’s not in that bed and I thought, I wonder if she’s woken up and gone into our bed.

“She wasn’t in our bed and that was the first time I guess you know when panic kicked in and it was literally at that point the curtains that were closed kind of whooshed and I could see that the window had been pushed right open and the shutters were up.”

Kate begins to breakdown and wipes away tears as she composes herself and adds: “Sorry ... so I kind of knew straight away then that Madeleine had been taken.”

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She also revealed how Madeleine had asked her that morning why she had not comforted her and her brother Sean, then aged 18 months, when they woke the night before.

Kate said: “We all woke up around 7.30 and went through to have breakfast and it was at that point that Madeleine said ‘where were you when Sean and I cried last night?’ And it was one of those questions that kind of throws you.”

Mr Redwood revealed yesterday that private detectives produced the image of the man seen by the Smiths in September 2008, but it was never released until this week. He would not be drawn on the reasons for this.

He also revealed investigators are looking at a spate of break-ins in the area with similarities to the Madeleine case.

One happened in the same week a year before Madeleine went missing, when a man got into a flat where two young British children were sleeping as their parents dined next door.

The intruder was interrupted by the older child who screamed after seeing the skinny man peering into a travel-cot.

Mr Redwood said: “We can see that in the week that Madeleine disappeared but in the year before in 2006, that two children were in an apartment when a man came in and he appears to have come through the patio door, had a look around inside and definitely had a look into one of the cots and then left without taking anything. Then one of the children raised the alarm.”

He said in the three months before Madeleine vanished there was a four-fold increase in burglaries.

He added: “The numbers were low, but it is a noticeable pattern which peaks in April.

“In the McCanns’ apartment the only physical disturbance we see is a window.

“I am directly appealing to anyone who was in the resort at the time, whether a resident or on holiday, that has been a victim of crime.”

He added that Madeleine could have been snatched by a group of men who had put the family under surveillance.

He said: “Madeleine McCann’s disappearance does, on one reading of the evidence, have the hallmarks of a pre-planned abduction that would undoubtedly have involved reconnaissance.”

He said the family could have been under surveillance over the previous five evenings they were in the resort.

Investigators are also trying to identify a number of blond men seen near the apartment at the time who could be Dutch or German. TV appeals will be run in Holland and Germany, although not Portugal.

Mr Redwood said: “There are one or two men who appear to be lurking around the apartments in the area itself.

“A consistent theme in the physical descriptions of those sightings is possibly blond or fair hair. So we are just asking the public quite simply, are these connected? But more importantly is this you? Because if it’s innocent, then it’s really important for us to take out those innocent sightings.”

A further line of inquiry is bogus charity collectors who were operating in the area at the time.

On the day that Madeleine disappeared, there were four cases of fake charity collectors targeted properties in the area.

Police have issued a number of e-fits, two of which are of the man who was seen carrying a child by the Smiths.

The others are drawn from descriptions of men who were seen in the area around the time that Madeleine disappeared. Two are of fair-haired men who fit similar descriptions.

One is of a man wearing sunglasses who was seen twice by the same witness near flat G5A where the McCanns were staying.

He was 30 to 35, thin, with short hair, shaving spots on his face and was wearing a black leather jacket. Another witness saw a similar-looking man in the resort.

There are also two e-fits of Portuguese men - one aged 40 to 45, who knocked on the door of the apartment where the McCanns were to stay on April 25 or 26 between 2.30pm and 3pm, saying that he was a charity collector.

The other, aged 25 to 30, approached a property on the Rua do Ramalhete, near the Ocean Club, at around 4pm on May 3.

Mr Redwood said: “We have reached a stage where it is about names, please.

"So in terms of the Smith sighting, right the way through to all the other information we are appealing for today, it is about us trying to understand precisely who these people are.

“Our absolute priority is to whittle down those various members of the public who have helpfully come forward to work out if any of these incidents are in any way involved in Madeleine’s disappearance.”

There is a £20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of those responsible for Madeleine’s disappearance.

British detectives launched a fresh investigation in July this year - two years into a review of the case.

The Met Police now has a team of six Portuguese detectives based in Faro who are carrying out inquiries on their behalf.

The Portuguese investigation is officially closed but authorities there are backing the Scotland Yard inquiry and officers from both countries are working together in pursuing new leads.